The New Guy
by for you to notice
Summary: Seth never needed to close the deal on Jane in Portland. She was already his. Because who wouldn't fall for the new guy? Just two chapters. Seth's view on Jane added.
1. Default Chapter

_Random piece on Seth. Mostly fluff, but a different take on it. Josh is the man. Peace and love..._

They said he was rich.

They said he was smart.

They said he was vulnerable.

She said he was hot.

And the fact that everyone in Portland had realized that Seth Cohen was probably the funniest guy in the world was pretty appealing. It also added that every girl who didn't want Luke wanted him.

Jane just thought he was sweet.

She loved watching him sit on the balcony that looked out to the lake where the college kids came to make out. He said he always went in when someone's shirt came off, but she laughed and muttered "sure." He faked embarrassment and laughed along with her. It made her laugh just to watch him. He laughed like it was his last chance to laugh. But sometimes he got quiet, and then not even Luke could make him laugh.

And then there was that sketch pad.

That sketch pad that was covered with the girl with soft, round hips and dark hair and darker eyes and lips. Jane had even saw a song written there once about a dance followed by the best night of his life. And she knew it was all true.

Jane knew there was a girl. A girl that had Seth Cohen's heart. A girl that had blown him off; one that he still thought about every night. He would never talk about her, and Luke always shook his head and said it was a bad idea to talk about her.

But one night, a month after he had come, Seth Cohen had told her about the girl he had named a boat after. First, he said she was beautiful. Then, he fumbled with his words and said she was more than that. More to him. He said she was the girl he would always picture in his mind as the epitome of the perfect girlfriend. Jane had wanted to know more about this perfect California girl, but Seth Cohen shut his mouth quickly. He blushed and said it was all in the past. Jane loved watching him blush.

Whenever he talked, he seemed to really mean it. She knew she had problems, if anyone mentioned his mother or father he looked like he was going to cry, but she also knew there weren't many boys like him in Portland. There weren't many boys like him in the world. Boys that beautiful, articulate, smart, artistic, and amazing are reserved for beautiful girls with dark hair dressed in Wonder Woman costumes. Or so his sketch book seemed to prove.

Jane told herself that she loved the boy she barely knew. It seemed magical to like the new boy, and after Chrissy had taken the other new Cali boy, there was only one left. But Jane couldn't have been happier. Seth Cohen was everything she could've ever wanted. More. He was everything he appeared to be, and he was so damn mysterious. He wasn't a bad boy, but he was...different. Like, she knew that she would never find another boy like him. And he didn't give a damn about many people or what they thought about him. Jane had convinced herself she loved him when he had taken her home when she was drunk. She had been in his lap, kissing his neck, but he had pushed her away and said she should go to sleep. He could've taken complete advantage of her, and she probably wouldn't even have cared the next morning. She probably would've been happy, if anything, if he had.

He loved music. She had realized that after countless times of walking in on him humming a song in his room. She had even convinced him to play his guitar for her once. He had focused so hard on the strings lying in front of him, that his tongue peeked out between his lips. He had sang too, some remake of an Oasis song. It was good, though, and he did it so it was so raw, and romantic, and coarse, and far away. Like him.

Once, she even thought he was going to kiss her. It had been a week after the fourth of July, something major had obviously happened to him but nothing she could do would make him tell her, and Luke had taken them all to a drive-in movie. Psycho. Luke and Chrissy had been making out for the entire thing, Seth Cohen not even looking at her for most of the night. But near the end, his eyes had caught hers, a grin teasing his lips. He nodded over to Luke and Chrissy and to the people in the next car staring at them. Jane laughed and leaned over to look at something else he had pointed at. When she started to slink back into her seat, her hand had brushed his chest. He had stared at her for what seemed like forever, and she had even thought for a second that he was leaning in, but after a few minutes, he said he had to get something to drink, asking her if she wanted anything.

Every day, she found out something new about him. That he hadn't had many friends back in California, that his best friend had moved away, that he had had a crush on the same girl since he was in third grade, that she hadn't known his name until a little less than a year ago. Jane tried to convince herself that if she had lived in Newport with him, then she would have noticed him. There was this something about him that pulled her in and made her heart jump with every blink of those eyelashes that went on for miles.

But Seth Cohen would never be in love with her. She knew Luke wanted him to be, probably because he was always so depressed. Like, he tried to hide it, but everyone knew it. It was probably the reason why so many girls had developed majorly intense crushes on him. He was a musician, an artist, a comedian, the perfect guy.

"Hey, Luke."

"Jane. Hi."

"Is Seth in the living room? I need to talk to him."

"Oh, he didn't tell you? He had to jet back to the O.C. I can give you his number."

"What? He left?"

"Yeah, his brother came back and took him home. You want the number?"

"Um...I don't know."

"Is something wrong?"

"No. I'm...fine. Could you just tell him I'm going to miss him?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course."

"All right. Thanks."

"You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, I just...I'm fine."

"Okay. Because if you ever need to talk..."

"Yeah, right. Bye Luke."

"Bye, babe."

She smiled weakly to Luke and walked out of the house, letting her back fall against the door. There goes another one.


	2. Ew

_Okay, first of all, this was never meant to be a story about Jane. It was supposed to be describing Seth in Portland, and I thought she was an interesting viewpoint. I suck at making up characters, so I think if I made a story focused around Jane, you guys would kick my ass. I am sorry, it's a good idea, so if anyone is really good at developing characters, you have my blessing to take our young heroine to Newport Beach. However, you guys seemed to like this story, so I guess it's going to end up being a two-shot. Here's the other side of the story and some closure._

It had always been all about Summer.

Ever since Seth was 8, it had been all about Summer.

There had been a brief stint where he thought he had liked Marissa when he was 11, but it wasn't true. And then there had been Anna, but he still didn't know what that had been all about.

But Summer was in Newport Beach. He couldn't have Summer, so Luke spent his days trying to convince that it would be okay if he liked Jane. Luke said he _did_ like Jane. Luke said Jane was hot. Luke said Jane was in love with him. Luke said he should at least hook up with Jane, before she came to her senses. Seth shook his head; Jane was a friend. Luke's girlfriend's best friend, so she and Seth kind of became friends by default. It was easy to laugh with someone when your friends are basically making babies right in front of you. And she was cool. And she liked to dress in little bikinis, and Seth didn't mind glancing every now and then. But only every now and then.

That was it. There wasn't any...romantic interest, or whatever. Luke said it bummed her out, that she wanted more, but Seth didn't believe Luke. Jane was one of those girls that had always been out of his league, no matter how much she laughed when he cracked jokes about pop culture. Like, Summer would always be out of his league. Maybe that's why it was so hard to get through to her. Maybe she just had always hated him.

But Jane was always sweet to him. She laughed a lot. She winked a lot. She touched him a lot. And there was that one time she was drunk off her ass and said that he was everything she could ever want. But she had been drunk. So he had just nodded along and taken her home. She had slipped her hands around any expanse of skin she could see, but he whispered carefully for her to stop. That she was drunk. She mumbled something, but he just nodded and supported her back so she wouldn't fall backwards. She giggled and threaded her hands through the hairs on the back of his neck, kissing his shoulder blade with brief, soft kisses. His eyes had closed for one second, and Jane's hair had darkened. But when his eyes came back into focus, he just drove her home. It wasn't fair.

Jane always knew how to smile. Sometimes it comforted Seth; sometimes he just thought it made her seem naïve. Summer didn't smile that much. Well, she did, but there was always something that could make her cry. And when she cried, her whole body wrapped up and her face buried into her knees. He had seen Jane cry once. She lay her cheek against her palm and let the tears fall while she whimpered until there weren't any left. Summer never made any noise when she cried. Like she was hiding it from someone. Jane didn't care who heard or saw her. When she was upset, everyone around her knew she was upset. Summer blamed it on The Valley or her new hairspray whenever she slipped up her guard and someone saw the tears running down her cheeks.

There was this one time when Luke had dragged him to one of those "retro" drive in movies. All that happened was Seth and Jane paid three bucks to see Luke and Chrissy make out. And Jane had been looking at him all night like Chrissy had gotten the better date, and he should do something about it. He had thought about running far away and trying to call Summer again, but in the end he just excused himself to get a bottle of water. Anything cold that could numb the hollow in his throat he got whenever he thought of her smiling ever again. Jane had looked upset, but she had started to do that more often. Maybe she was getting sick of him. Seth sure was. Of himself. Not her. Jane was perfect, and Seth was fine with hanging out with her. Even though it was annoying as hell whenever Luke mentioned the fact that he should make a move on her. Seth wouldn't do that. He'd be thinking about one thing the entire time.

She had persuaded him to sing for her once. Jane. He sang the song he had perfected on the number of nights he wasn't with Summer, which was increasing more and more, so he had the song down pretty well. "Today was gonna be the day, but they'll never throw it back to you." The song was actually pretty depressing, and when one doesn't have Summer in a dark red dress looking up at him with sparkling eyes and parted lips, it became more apparent. But Jane had smiled and nodded her head along to the strings of his guitar. Well, Luke's guitar, but Luke had given him a lot since he noticed how bored Seth had gotten.

Seth thought that Luke was actually glad to have him around. He was always laughing about something, and the sight of him laughing got Seth to laugh too. He also found it rather amusing that his best friend in his life right then was the captain of the water polo team. He had tried to explain to Jane how much he used to hate Luke, but she got confused. Summer would have understood. Summer would have laughed. Jane didn't seem to care all that much.

There were many pretty girls in Portland. Beautiful. He guessed that Jane was a way to pass the time. She was easy to flirt with, and she always flirted back, so nothing was really wrong with that. He didn't know why everyone seemed to be rooting for them to hook up, but he ignored them pretty well. He also didn't understand why Jane seemed to get so...different during his last few weeks in Portland. But that was over, anyway.

"Hey Seth!" Seth picked up his cell phone to the shouting of a guy kind of drunk.

"Hey, Luke. Miss me up there?"

"O'course, man. What's it like to be back?"

"Weird. Summer's...not accepting my return very well."

"Sucks, dude. It's boring here without you. You should totally come back."

"Yeah, I don't know. I got my parents now and Ryan, so..."

"I get it, man. Well, _someone_ hear misses you even more than I do."

"God, Luke, I told you. Chrissy _always_ liked me best."

"Fuck you, jackass, I mean Jane."

"Oh yeah? How do you know?"

"She's always talking about you and shit. I still think you guys would've been a cute couple. Or at least she's hot, right?"

"I don't know. I mean...Summer's still..."

"...not interested in you. Can I give you Jane's number and you promise you'll call?"

"I guess, as friends, though."

"Friends are overrated. She's still into you."

"That's nice, Luke. I hope the hangover hurts like hell tomorrow."

"Nice. Wait, here she is. _Jane!!!_"

Seth winced at the yell, but put the phone back to his ear when he heard the slurs of the girl that he guessed hated him too, now.

"Seth! What's up, honey?"

"Hey, Jane. You know, you shouldn't let Luke convince you into drinking your ass off."

"It's _okay_, Seth. Don't worry about me. I'm a big girl."

"I know you are."

"Ew! You just called me big!"

Seth laughed, ignoring the jolt he had felt at the ew. "I didn't mean it at all. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. So what's Newport like?"

"Boring. Depressing. How's life without me?"

"It _sucks_. God, it sucks. I miss you every day."

"I miss you too."

"And what sucks the most is I have to find someone new to flirt my ass with."

"The feeling is mutual."

"Good. You know, we really should have hooked up when you were here."

"Talk to Luke recently?"

"No. Well, I mean, yeah, but that's not why I think it. There's another reason."

"And what would that be?"

"You're hot as hell, Seth. And you know what? I think I _loved_ you."

Seth laughed hesitantly, deciding to humor her. "Right, Jane. I loved you too."

"Really? That's _awesome_. So I'll see you around?"

"Before we die."

"Swear?"

"Pinky."

"Sweet. Okay, bye, Seth!"

"Bye, Jane."

Seth glanced at the phone before tossing it onto his backpack on the floor. She had been kidding. She had to have been kidding. No one could love some new guy in their school that they had known for two months. Right?


End file.
